Since Christmas

all I can think is Victoria Beckham.

Eden loves the mirrors in our room

Princesses!?!

Before Christmas I hosted a cookie exchange with some friends. I made peppermint-flavored cookies in the shape of candy canes. Since there was a competition for presentation as well as taste, I decided to make a Candy Cane forest—from the movie, Elf. I was pretty excited about this idea as I find myself creatively challenged at times. I baked a chocolate cake, covered it in white icing and stuck the candy canes in the cake. I also made some tree-shaped cookies to mix in with the candy canes. I sprinkled white sugar on top of the cake to give the effect of sparkling snow. It was fun. I didn’t win because I hosted, but was definitely proud of my presentation!

We celebrated Christmas at our house with some good friends, Justin, Laurel, Hannah and Asher. We enjoyed sour cream chicken enchiladas instead of the traditional meal…and the left over chocolate cake from the cookie party.

Grammy watching over skype.

Thanks to our parents for helping us out with our Christmas present to ourselves, we bought a new SLR camera. We’re pretty excited about learning how to use it correctly. I definitely see a photography class in my future…just so I don’t have a nice camera that I don’t know how to use.

Got lucky on this one

Ryan’s sister, Rebecca, and her family came to visit just after Christmas. We had a great time visiting with Dave and Becca and playing with their girls, who are the same age (give or take 2 months) as our girls. We were surprised that Selah and Sara Kate were several handfuls of frustration, as they fought so much. Dave often commented that they had a love-hate relationship during the visit. Elisabeth was a joy to be around. She is so beautiful and is always in good spirits, beaming an amazing smile.

Eden(left), Elisabeth(right)

Love...

Hate.

Family Cay

Love, again

Sweet Elisabeth

This past week Selah was contently painting in her coloring books when I decided it would be fun to paint Selah. I certainly knew she would enjoy it. So, we painted…and we both enjoyed it.